[TCM] Remembering Everything in TCM

[Braxton Ponder]

On the subject of remembering in general...

A few months ago I started using a program called Supermemo. It is
essentially a sophisticated flash card program (with other features designed
to help with reading and remembering large volumes of info).

The sophistication comes in to play through the use of algorithms which time
the repetitions of each card based on how you grade yourself, along with
theory about repetitions and memory retention time. I like it a lot. I
really shows you your weak spots, and avoids unnecessary review of material
you know well. I only wish I had started entering data when I first began
school.

The web site (supermemo.com) has a lot of general info on learning and
memorizing, though it can be a little difficult to find what you want on
there. Unfortunately, it turns out that memorizing lists of things is to be
avoided at all costs, and that seems to be much of what we do when learning
the basics of TCM (point energetic, herb energetics, formula ingredients,
etc.)

It is possible to categorize your data and work with one set of questions
and answers (QAs) at a time (good for new info) or randomly review
everything you have entered in. However, it is a long term study/memory
tool - not well suited for cramming!

I have QAs developed for about a third of the herbal formulas (also
comprehensive QAs for tuina and some bits and pieces on other subjects). I
am working on a database of points, herbs and formulas, from which I
generate QAs for Supermemo. I have a lot of data, but have not yet got it
all into a consistent format (or proofread it) so that I can easily generate
QAs.

I would be willing to share my work with someone who is comfortable working
with a simple database to clean up the acupoint and single herb records so I
can generate the QAs. For example, I want to add common names to the herbs
db, and change the existing category and sub-category names to those I
learned.
A couple of extra fields need to be entered here and there so I can use them
in the process of converting to QAs.

Check out Supermemo first and make sure it looks like something you would
like. You'll need to be pretty comfortable with Supermemo and databases (I
use listpro for this - you will have to handle simple conversions if you
want to use something else). I just don't have time to offer much assistance
on using the programs. But who knows, the final result might even be
salable.

By the way, at supermemo.com, you can purchase QAs for anatomy and general
(western) medicine.


Braxton